ACORN Filmmaker O’Keefe’s Other Videos
The Village Voice did some investigation of supposedly independent filmmaker James O’Keefe (of ACORN pimp and prostitute fame) and found that contrary to what O’Keefe has said that he is a wingnut welfare recipient.
James O’Keefe, the activist filmmaker who achieved sudden fame for a series of undercover videos recording ACORN workers, has repeatedly said that he is “absolutely independent” and received no outside funding to make his films.
But the Voice has learned that O’Keefe, in fact, has had heavyweight conservative backers who funded the young filmmaker as recently as a few months before his ACORN films were made.
The ACORN videos are actually just the latest of several films O’Keefe has produced and uploaded to YouTube. An earlier film posted in February, “Taxpayers Clearing House” featured nonwhite, working class people being duped by O’Keefe, who led them to believe they had won money in a sweepstakes.
That video was produced with the help of a grant — said to be about $30,000 [Thiel’s spokesman says closer to $10,000 — see update] — from Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook — an investment which made him a billionaire.
Yeah, that video was totally worth $10,000.
Tags: ACORN, James O'Keefe
Casting aspersions against O’Keefe is typical. Obviously ACORN was always professional and serving the community by their conduct.
Mike Protack
Hey there, don’t forget those Planned Parenthood calls:
http://www.lifenews.com/nat5479.html
“O’Keefe is a 25 year-old Fordham university student who also took part in calls Live Action orchestrated asking Planned Parenthood local affiliates if it would accept donations form someone because they supported the abortions of black babies for racist purposes. In many cases, the staff at the centers gladly accepted the donations and appeared to agree with the motivation behind them.”
Is that supposed to make him better or worse?
Geezer,
I don’t think that makes him any better or worse, but he is misrepresenting himself in public. I think the video of the “Taxpayers Clearing House” makes him look like a real and total jerk. Of course, I hate those kind of videos where people go out with cameras to try to make people look foolish. It’s lazy filmmaking at its worse, IMO.
You decide. Just trying to add more context to the discussion.
“Of course, I hate those kind of videos where people go out with cameras to try to make people look foolish. It’s lazy filmmaking at its worse, IMO.”
Just ask Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen is the clown in his films. He’s doing rude and boorish behavior to see how people react. Things like “Jaywalking” are expressly done to make people looks stupid. It’s not Jay who is being the clown in those.
Gee – he got money from a private source and not the government. What a scandal!
“Gee – he got money from a private source and not the government. What a scandal!”
Just like Move On. except they don’t lie about it.
I’m just waiting to see the videos of the fraud and abuse in Iraq…surely several tens of billions in fraud at the taxpayers expense is more important thatn capturing fraud and waste from an org that gets about 8million a year.
oh, wait no, Acorn tries to help the poor, what was I thinking
Is there someone dressed like a prostitute and pimp? If not, BORING!
thats the David Vitter video